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二十一世纪中国园林景观设计思想枯竭了吗？（二十一世纪中国园林及景观发展的方向是什么）

据天安门景观设计竞赛截止时间还有3个多月，值得欣慰的是有很多来自中国竞赛作品提交，值得提出的问题是：二十一世纪中国园林和景观设计将走向何方？上图是一位衣着古装的美女，面含羞怯的微笑，她从深圳的一处高层建筑往外看，感到了迷惑。她知道她的国家具有灿烂的园林历史传统，也明白她的国家也必将现代化。但是，她想知道：“难道我们的未来真的是一场恶梦，开始于1920年后阴郁的好莱坞？赫斯特城堡是真正的现代中国灵感的最佳来源？过去5000年遗留下来的中国艺术、建筑和园林真的毫无价值？或者是问题源于太多中国景观设计受到美国模式的影响，并且是在中国以外的地方，由一些毫无思想的机器人在工厂的模式下完成的？”然而，她又沉思，“至少，这个公园还没有被叫成一个西班牙式的名字，至少，是我父亲拥有这个屋顶天台花园”。那么，我希望，她将决心学习园林和景观设计，成为一位结合自然和历史文脉设计方面的专家。作为一个仅有的鼓励，我很高兴能够送给她一本我的著作《亚洲园林：信念、历史和设计》。当读到最后一句时，她一定会很满意，“越往后看，你能够向前看得越远”，这是引自温斯顿丘吉尔的话，他是在喝了半箱红酒时说的。然而，她会更欣赏孔子所说过的话：“当明显知道目标不能达到时，不要调整目标，调整行动的步伐”。
See English translation below

You have as much reason to be scared about my knowledge of Chinese as an elephant has reason to scared of being bitten by a mouse.
What I mean is that I made the idiotic mistake of thinking that landscape architecture in China would be like modern landscape architecture in India (ie very very disappointing). I landed in Shanghai in 2007, had some good strong coffee, and set out on my bicycle. Within one hour I had found several examples of really well made modern parks. I do not know how many landscape architects there are in China. But I would like to know and I think that China needed 250,000 landscape architects 25 years ago.
I also think that Qiu Baoxing, the Chinese Vice-minister for Construction, is a wise and wonderful man – and that he should invest substantial resources in the training of landscape architects. He needs to understand that architects, planners and engineers are not going to create the types of urban enviroment which he and I want China to have! It is a job for landscape architects. They have the necessary ideas and theory, even if the necessary staff are not available. Would you ask a gardener to design a building? A few of them can do it very well, but on the whole it is better to ask architects to design buildings and landscape architects to design the urban space which surrounds buildings. Obvious really.
For example, Qiu Baoxing(仇保兴) declared Kunming a National Garden City (at the 46th World Congress of the International Federation of Landscape Architects). But Kunming has a similar population to London and is growing much faster, so why didn’t Qiu Baoxing(仇保兴) call for the establishment of professional courses, in Kunming, for the training of garden designers, landscape architects and landscape planners? I have heard that it is being considered – but action is required and he is the man to make the call. All power to his elbow.

You rode bike there! Cool! It is interesting enough to put this news on the shanghai newspaper.Did you frighten Shanghainees that day?:-)

Actualy, I went to Shanghai in 2006. I also found it has good public green spaces in the CBD and some residents park. They are great.The reason is that they are designed by many western-base companies,like EDAW …not local Chinese ones. I am very native-protection person, my thinking is that western people should not do the Chinese landscape design at all( 3years ago, I thought like this ,not now)

I see no advantage in being ‘nationalistic’ about who does a design. It is far more important to have a good design than to have a design by a local person. It is the same with cars and cameras: I want the best camera for the job, not a locally made camera. So I always try to buy Japanese cars and cameras.
I have not met Qiu Baoxing but I would want to shake his hand warmly if I did, and then I would recommend a massive expansion of landscape architecture education in China.
Re cycling in China, people were much less interested in seeing an old man on a small bike than they were in India, or maybe they were more polite and did not want to stare at an oddity. But I think it is generally true that Chinese people are less friendly with strangers and, perhaps, more friendly with people they know and trust. Making comparisons is dangerous.

I have seen photos of landscape meetings in China but have not contributed myself – when I travel I am always so keen to see places that I do not have much time to meet people. But if I think back to meetings with strangers in China, I would say that Chinese people are more cautious and less open than people in, for example, India. Cycling in India, people were always calling out ‘Welcome to India? Where from? Very nice bike!’ but this did not happen once in China. But please don’t think I am criticising the Chinese for this – it is in fact how I behave myself. Ah, and now I remember an exception. I stopped to ask the way in, I think, Jinan. The kind man who helped me invited me to visit him in No. 17 School, where he worked, ‘any time at all’.

I am not going to argue about the behaver of Chinese. Maybe,you were not luckey that time.

But the main reason is that maybe you donot look like a foreigner.That is why they didnot speak to you.There is a traditional custom in china which is “worship things foreign and fawn on foreign countries”. They like foreigners more than local person. Not eveyone likes me, treat everybody the same.

Please do not think that I am criticising the Chinese. I like and admire them. It is just that social customs vary between countries. I once read of a Hungarian who came to England with the habit of starting a conversation on a train by asking ‘How much money to you earn?’ – which is a question one would never ask in England! My own principle, like yours, is to treat everyone the same. You are definitely the first person to think that I look Chinese and I take it as a compliment.

Yu Kongjian seems on course to become the Frederick Law Olmsted of China. He did not reply to an email from Gardenvisit.com – but I guess FLO was not much good with email either. Both landscape architects are good at getting publicity.

Hehe, it is an interesting guess. But it is depending on the generation, different generations need different FLOs.

I may prefer to respect everyone who loves landscape architects and donates themselves to this subject,including the teachers,scholars,writers,designers… Sometimes, the gereration can provide a chance for landscape architects to make their idea come true,for example,FLO’s Centural Park.But sometimes there is not a chance for the person to make his/her theory come ture although they are brilliant as FLO.

I think Yu Konjuan may be closer to a Forestier or a Mawson than to an Olmsted: he seems to be following trends more than he is setting a new direction for his profession. But I admire what I know of his work.